A Third-Rate Villain’s Sweet Life Exploiting Academy Bugs

Chapter 71



Claris Academy.

During the festival period, Claris becomes partially open and gets bustling with citizens coming to witness the grandeur of the Empire’s magic engineering.

In preparation for the full-fledged festival, the Academy had heated up its atmosphere, while on the other side, guilds were competing to discover potential newcomers.

– “Edwin, Student! Didn’t I tell you then that we have no interest in our guild?!”

– “Haha, well…”

– “Edwin! I saw the match! You were amazing!”

In this context…

Defeating an S rank, the C rank Edwin was a hot commodity and the talk of the town.

What a storyline worthy of headlines…

Large guilds were cautiously observing, but small to medium guilds were eagerly betting on his talents.

Edwin, who had been training alone for a long time.

He seemed to enjoy the newfound attention, a bit unaccustomed to it, as he attracted the gaze of a girl,

Aria…

She was sulking slightly.

‘Where did he run off to again…?’

Lev Denec had disappeared.

It wasn’t surprising since it happened often, but this time he was gone far enough that even surveillance magic didn’t activate, like when he accompanied the war hero.

‘Not that I use it anymore…’

In fact, Aria had decided not to maintain the surveillance magic on him anymore.

His actions had not been greatly wrong until now,

And it wasn’t honorable to pry into someone else’s personal matters.

She was trying to convince herself, but the truth was, getting to know Lev better was a bit frightening now.

‘Andras…’

She feared that her revenge target might have left a trace on him, and she was scared to confirm it.

“Aria…! Hi…!”

At that moment, a pure white girl, Yeriel, approached Aria.

“Yeriel?”

She kindly adjusted Aria’s beret.

Aria didn’t dislike the warm touch.

“Have you been doing well?”

“Yep! Aria has been fine too?”

“Yes.”

After asking about her wellbeing, Yeriel looked around with a puzzled expression, saying, ‘Oh?’

“…Are you looking for something?”

“Oh, I was wondering if Lev was around…!”

“…It’s the weekend, and I haven’t seen him since yesterday. Even mealtimes have passed, and he’s not in the cafeteria.”

“Oh, I see…?”

“Yes?… Yes.”

Hearing that, Yeriel felt relieved.

‘No more bad thoughts…!’

It seemed like her heart was growing heavy regarding Lev.

Like a child, she kept feeling fussy about it.

Anyway, the fact that the two hadn’t met all weekend brought Yeriel a strange sense of relief.

Suppressing the ‘bad feelings’ she had defined, she offered her congratulations to Aria.

“By the way, congratulations! I heard you’ve been promoted…?”

“Yes, thank you. I was lucky.”

During the ranking competition week, Aria had leveraged her specialties to shine.

Thanks to the recommendation of a professor from the Healing Studies department, she had also risen to rank S.

Yeriel, with a gentle smile, and Aria, quietly smiling back at her.

– ……

Since the two hadn’t had many private meetings, an awkward atmosphere hung between them for a while.

Until now, Lev Denec had been the one facilitating their conversations.

Yeriel hesitated for a moment.

‘Should I ask now…?’

Lev had clearly said it was a misunderstanding, but why had she become his girlfriend, or almost did?

It bugged her.

It might be rude, but it would definitely be better to clarify the relationship…

Gathering her courage, Yeriel struggled to part her beautiful lips.

“Aria, I have one thing…”

“…?”

“Whoa! You two were here!”

At that moment, Edwin waved as he approached from afar.

With his light green hair, he was quite a good-looking young man,

And seeing the girls’ gazes shift towards him as he moved around proved how impactful his confrontation with Caeran was.

“What?! What were you two talking about without me?”

“Oh, Edwin…! It’s been a while.”

“Hello.”

Edwin scratched his head bashfully at the warm greetings from the two.

“Don’t tell me you were talking about me… Haha.”

Even with such jokes,

“…Uh, yeah? Congrats on your promotion, Edwin…!”

“Congratulations.”

Yeriel smiled and accepted it.

“Haha, thanks! I’ll keep working hard from now on!”

‘……’

However, leaving behind the boisterous Edwin…

The two women’s attention was solely directed towards one man who wasn’t even there.

*

Tremble, tremble.

Before the Pleasure Lord,

the boy with dark blonde hair was trembling.

“Ugh, there’s this kid named Emma who keeps sending letters? The content is a bit worrying. So, Raymon, you go check it out.”

“Got it!”

Raymon Loganz, a second-year graduate of Claris Academy, had just barely become a temporary guild member of Divine Valhalla.

A guild presided over by the sword master of the Valantes family, Divine Valhalla.

Any knight of the Empire would know its name and admire it.

Although its position was formally lower than the royal knights,

its influence was different.

Recently, as the guild accommodated several complaints from the citizens, its fame had soared.

Therefore, the first task Raymon received was also a procedural task.

It was to investigate the collusion of raiders happening recently in Evenbaugh, as mentioned in Emma’s letter…

And that was all.

Pffft!

“Yikes!”

“Save me!”

“What is this!”

“Shit, run away!!”

“I-I was just following the leader’s orders…!”

Pfft!!!

Right before his eyes, people were dying.

Splash…

“Heheh!”

Pieces of what used to be people fell right next to him.

Fortunately, he had somewhat of a resistance to curses and didn’t fall into the curse of pleasure.

But he had a horrible feeling that it’d soon be his turn.

“Fighting means drawing the sword, and nothing else should occupy your thoughts.”

“Focus solely on combat. And survive.”

Following the teachings of the war hero Dustin.

He should draw his sword.

He clearly needed to step up!

As he watched one person after another die, Raymon felt shriveled.

PFFFFFFFFFT!!!

Gag… plop.

“I… I’m garbage…”

His body wouldn’t move at all.

Then, a man caught his eye.

The one who had just slapped Ronald without mercy… a mysterious man.

– ……

For some reason, he wasn’t running away.

“…?”

As if he knew the order of deaths.

*

Until the evolved Pleasure Lord pulled all its tentacles and assumed a battle stance, there was still time.

The threat posed by this demon boss ranked, of course, as the one who had attracted most aggro when it was still in its larval state.

“Se-Save me…!”

Pfft!

In other words, the members of Ronald’s factions would be the first to be killed.

In the meantime, I took out a curse-cleansing potion from my backpack and handed it to the non-guild members.

“Drink one each. And everyone run away.”

At that, the mercenaries exchanged glances.

“Th-Thank you. Then!”

Tatatat!

One by one, they fled without looking back.

Which was no surprise.

Right now, this ground was not a guild.

A hastily assembled raid, street mercenaries, with faces unfamiliar to each other, it was natural for no one to worry about their own safety.

Thinking that way, soon only the girl called Emma remained, asking me.

“…What about you?”

“Well, someone must take care of that.”

“That… alone?”

“Then, will you help me?”

“……”

“Not to be a hindrance… if you don’t want to die, just go.”

She seemed to have some healing magic skills.

If she was born into a noble family, she would probably have attended the Academy.

What a pity.

Then, Emma, undeterred, spoke to me.

“Actually… I asked Divine Valhalla for help. So if we escape together…! Soon someone will come to help…!”

Divine Valhalla.

The super guild operated by Abelene’s family, the Valantes.

So I could roughly infer how the Ring of Induction flowed into the auction.

However, I needed to monopolize the reward…

Tremble, tremble!

The blonde, clearly a rookie mercenary.

While overall his disguise looked dirty,

At least his sword was clean.

He was likely a knight hiding his identity.

Looking at Emma’s eyes, which still had hope,

I wanted to say, ‘That little brat you mentioned from Divine Valhalla is over there trembling,’

but I held back, fearing to shatter the innocence.

“Forget it. Mind your own business.”

“Th-That’s—!”

Pffft!

“Aaaaah!”

Thud.

It was only after the fifth person had died that she shouted,

“Even if I die… I don’t care!”

Emma dashed into the depths of the forest.

I turned back to the horrifying Pleasure Lord and thought.

‘Detailed information.’

Ding!

———————————————————

Pleasure Lord (55% to Full Form)

▶[Skills Held]

Pleasure (Passive): When all tentacles of the Pleasure Lord in larval form are removed, it curses enemies within a radius of 100 meters with Level 3 Pleasure.

Pleasure: After 6 minutes, injects a happy delusion into the target, causing them to lose their life.

Tentacle Attack (Active): Usable only on evolution. Attacks enemies with six large spider-like tentacles.

Currently usable 2.

Despair (Active): Usable only on evolution. Inflicts a Level 5 Pleasure curse on the most recently attacked enemy and kills them using massive tentacles. (12 times activated)

Excrement (Active): Usable only on evolution. Flaps wings to shoot untyped excrement.

Legion (Active): Usable only on evolution. Controls the mass of ‘Pleasure’ obtained to attack.

▶[Special States]

Evolution – Awakening: Activates when sufficient mana is absorbed, evolving into its adult form.

(In Hell Mode, when the larval state of the Pleasure Lord* has lost all tentacles, it is forced to activate.)

Upon evolution, the power of all skills increases in overlapping amounts, and it immediately enters combat mode.

(*Aggro count is not reset.)

Groggy: The Pleasure Lord is affected only by status anomalies based on its insect type when struck with heavy damage. If conditions are met, it becomes groggy for 8 seconds, receiving 50% increased damage.

———————————————————

“Alright.”

Though on par with the flame demon at B+, the Pleasure Lord was already in an evolved state due to the game’s Hell difficulty.

But,

“It’ll be easy if I know the patterns.”

The skills it wielded were exactly as I expected.

Hahaha! Hahaha!

Pfft!!!

“This makes seven victims…”

The Pleasure tentacle show, or rather, the Despair pattern, continues.

First was Ronald, then the number one marksman Vikes.

Next was a man with a royal dot on his forehead,

and after him, a curly-haired guy with a foul smell…

Members of Ronald’s party were dying one by one.

The Pleasure Lord is an evolved demon without rage; as an insect, it evolves.

And aside from the passive skills, all others could only be used when evolved.

One of the most troublesome would be that Despair.

Ranked threats from 1 to 12 could inflict Level 6 Pleasure, and obviously, even my resistance wouldn’t work against that.

Since the boss was designed for a raid, it was impossible for me to endure 12 attacks of curses alone.

Hence, it was necessary to have meat shields to take its place.

Those Crow Pay thugs did that job beautifully.

Hehehe… hehehehe…

Pfft.

Caught in pleasure, they approached the lord and shoved their heads into the tentacles.

“What a nightmare…”

It was my first time seeing people die right in front of me since I came to this world,

But to survive, there wasn’t much I could do.

Ding!

Despair pattern of ‘Pleasure Lord’ has ended.

Only after yielding 12 sacrifices, the Despair pattern came to an end.

[‘Hermit’ trait activated.]

After confirming my status once more, I used my ultimate skill.

Demonization.

Skreee!!!

The Gray Ashen Bolt revealed its form,

Peeebibibibibibit!!!

My shadow bolts began piercing through the tentacles of the Pleasure Lord.

Screee!!!

*

“Th-This can’t be.”

From a distance, Emma watched Lev’s figure with her mouth covered.

The man she had urged to run away was not bluffing at all.

Fwoosh!

Shakaakakaka!!!

With each shot from his crossbow, the Pleasure Lord twisted its body.

It seemed like he knew something.

He knew what the Pleasure Lord desired, targeted, and even its weaknesses.

Calmly, he was removing its tentacles one by one.

“Is he really planning to take it down alone…?”

“Someone has to take care of that.”

She thought it was a bluff, as that’s just how men are.

But he was actually intending to handle an expedition of nearly thirty people… all by himself.

In that moment, Emma recalled the words she had said earlier.

– “I asked Divine Valhalla for help!”

Since the abuse by Crow Pay had continued, Emma had been steadily sending letters to Divine Valhalla.

Surely they, who understood chivalry, would help.

“So it’s true! He really did come…!”

Whether or not there was a crossbow-wielding member among the knights didn’t matter.

Ultimately, as long as the cruel and greedy Ronald and his gang were exterminated.

‘Thank you! Thank you!’

Emma began praying to a god she had never sought or believed in.

By the way, how strong were those guild members?

How great is a guild?!

She felt a little bit smitten.

If that man succeeded in defeating the Pleasure Lord, she would definitely go to Divine Valhalla to express her gratitude!

And she would certainly ask for his name.

‘Someone like him should rise to greater heights!’

Thus… Emma decided to become a fan of one man.



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